on June 16, 2024, 3:13 am
This article says it all really, a condensation of everything humanly stupid in re. gard to environmental destruction and global warming
Where to start?
Four, five at least tourist deaths from heat exhaustion. We don't know how many Greeks have died in the same time.
Record temperatures for the time of year in many parts of Greece, 44.5 deg C in Crete, the frontline in our "battle against global warming" Sorry, what "battle"? How is millions of tourists visiting Greece, almost certainly all of them flying there and polluting our atmosphere with millions of tonnes of CO2, in any way "battling" global warming? Isn't that stoking the flames?
Record numbers of tourist on the island of Santorini, population 15.000, visitors 5 million plus. Locals not coping, tourists not coping, Greece not coping, the planet not coping.
On Thursday, the Greek ombudsman issued a separate report warning that the country needs to see urgent changes if it wants to see continued growth in tourism. It warned of the growing environmental risks and called for urgent reform. The ecological double think or cognitive dissonance of increasing tourism and environmental protection, when present numbers of tourists are already grossly excessive needs no pointing out.
But there is consolation in seeing millions of frying tourist in Greece. Last year I was in the UK, in my own cocoon of cognitive dissonance (after much internal debate but with so many of my family in the UK) and visited the island of Colonsay. There were the 112 or so local people, and perhaps twenty or thirty visitors. The weather was not Greek in late September, and storm Agnes made an afternoon and evening visit, but I did some drawing and started a poem in a cosy backpacker's lodge, with a can or two of beer and some peace in my own company. Kiloran Bay was a fifteen minute walk from my temporary home, and as with so many Hebridean beaches, rivals the beauties of any bleach you'd care to name in any other part of the planet.....
Colonsay - A Hebridean Jewel
As precious gems string fairest Beauty’s neck,
The Hebrides do bend their jewels around
The Highland coasts and rocky lochs bedeck,
Where their treasures in the seas are found.
Such thoughts are but the normal way of those
Who wander lonely on these lovely shores,
Where the machair meets the rocks which close
The land in storm and still the ocean’s roars.
In Colonsay I found some days to stray,
Whereat was I in captive mood then struck,
As sand and wilder sea did pave my way
And sang to me a song of nature’s luck.
For deep within those barest rocks and bold,
Lie Aeons of life in Earth’s profoundest deeps,
Of ancient story whispered faintly, told
To those who’ll hear them from their stony steeps.
Now more recent does the machair whisper too,
A subtler tale of storm and sandy gale;
A land of orchid grass, sheep-cropped and true
To me as any other worldly tale.
For then, the Strand ‘long which I bootless waded
To reach the further Isle of Oronsay;
The tide being kind and thereby was persuaded
At the ruined priory to pray.
So for my day in silent prayer I thanked
In thoughts of quiet solitude and grace.
For in these lonely isles a prayer is banked
In memories that never lose their place.
So here’s a word for those who read this verse,
You’ll find your peace in places wild and strong;
In rocks and sand and sea your mind immerse
And fill you soul with nature’s quietest song.
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